Neat trick the HX400V can do . . .

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It hasn't passed notice that I might be the only human in known universe who actually cares about this, but nevertheless . . .

Taking pictures of the sky -- epic grandeur, beautiful phenomena, etc. -- is my passion. Sometimes sky phenomena are surprisingly dynamic. Dawn sunlight reflecting off clouds might last only a few seconds as the angle of the rising sun changes. So sometimes, speed is of the essence.

The autofocus system in the HX400V depends on contrast to lock-on, but sometimes sufficient contrast in the sky is hard to come by, and the camera hunts focus or refuses to focus at all. There is a switch on the side of the lens barrel that allows the photographer to select what the camera is going to do with autofocus.

The top position is for autofocus only, and in that case the ring around the lens barrel is assigned to zoom function. The second position is for autofocus plus manual focus. You press the shutter button halfway down; the camera autofocuses (or attempts to do so), and the photographer can use the ring around the lens barrel to fine-tune the focus. The third position is for manual focus only.

Now here's the cool part: if you select the third position -- manual focus only -- the camera automatically puts manual focus on infinity whenever you turn the camera on.

For a sky photographer, this means you don't have to worry about focusing on infinity; it's already there.